essay about modern poetry

20th Century (Modern) Poetry in English Literature: Characteristics & Themes

Back to: History of English Literature All Ages – Summary & Notes

Table of Contents

Introduction

Modernism, a movement that was a radical break from 19 th century Victorianism , led to post-modernism, which emphasized self-consciousness and pop art. While 20th-century literature is a diverse field covering a variety of genres, there are common characteristics that changed literature forever.

20th Century English Poetry Development

The first phase of the movement, the school of imagism, the style of French symbolist poetry influence of Dome and the dominance of war poetry, these were all different manifestations of modernism in English poetry (1909-16)A.D.

During the flowering of Modernist poetry between 1917 and 1929, the 2 nd phase of the movement, all these initial manifestations of modernism combined to find a full nature expression in the poetry of T.S. Eliot, Edith Sitwell and later Yeats most notable of which is,Eliot’s The Waste Land , Sitwell’s Gold Coast Customs and Yeats’s Michael Robartes and the Dances

The 3 rd and the final phase of Modernist is largely the decade of the 30s which is marked by the Marxed (Non-Marxist) poets such as Auden, Louis McNiece, C. Day-Lewis and Stephen Spender.

Characteristics

Diverse variety of themes.

Poetry today can be written on almost any subject. The modern poets find inspirations from railway trains, tramcars, telephones and things of commonplace interest. Modern poets have not accepted the theory of great subjects for poetic composition.

The whole universe is the modern poet’s composition. He writes on themes of real-life e.g.  The Songs Train by John Davidson,  Goods Train of Night by Ashley,  Machine Guns by Richard Aldington,  Listeners by Walter

The poetry of the 20 th century is marked with a note of realism. Realism in modern poetry was the product of a reaction against the pseudo- romanticism of the last century over and above the influence of science.

Love forms the subject of many modern lyrics Robert Bridges has produced fine sonnets of love in The Growth of Love. E.g. I Will Not Let Thee Go. W.B. Yeats’ When You are Old etc.

There is a note of pessimism and disillusionment in modern poetry. The modern poet has realized the pettiness of human life and the tragedy and suffering of the poor have made him gloomy and sad.

Romantic Elements

In spite of the dominance of realism, in modern poetry, the spirit of romance continues to rule the minds of certain poets like Yeats, E. Thomas, Masefield etc. The works of these poets have the fact that the spirit of romance is as old as the life itself.

Walter De La Mare’s poetry is full of true romantic spirit bordering on supernaturalism. With him, the ghosts and fairies of the old world have come into their own in the 20 th century.

He gives a clear picture of birds, clouds landscapes, sea and countryside in his poetry. Masefield, Robert Bridges, Edmund Blunden etc are the great poets of nature in modern poetry.

Humanitarian and Democratic Note

Modern poetry is marked with a note of humanitarianism and democratic feeling. The modern poet, more than Wordsworth ( read A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal ) , is interested in the life of labourers, workers etc.

Religion and Mysticism

The modern age is the age of science, but even in this scientific age, we have poems written on the subject of religion and mysticism. W.B. Yeats, Francis Thompson, Robert Graves etc are the great poets who have kept alive the flame of religion and mysticism in their poetry.

Diction and Style

Modern poets have a preference for simple and direct expression. Modern poets have chosen to be free in the use of the meter. They have followed freedom from the trammels of verse. Verse rhythm is replaced by sense rhythm. There is free movement in 20th-century English poetry.

Further Reading

• Poem Guides
• Poem of the Day
• Collections
• Harriet Books
• Featured Blogger
• Articles Home
• All Articles
• Podcasts Home
• All Podcasts
• Glossary of Poetic Terms
• Poetry Out Loud
• Upcoming Events
• All Past Events
• Exhibitions
• Poetry Magazine Home
• Current Issue
• Poetry Magazine Archive
• Subscriptions
• About the Magazine
• How to Submit
• Advertise with Us
• About Us Home
• Foundation News
• Awards & Grants
• Media Partnerships
• Press Releases
• Newsletters

Modern Poetry

A post-Romantic lyric autobiography, Diane Seuss ’s  Modern Poetry , in reinventing the 19th- and 20th-century poetic canons, deconstructs how poems and poets are made, and what poems mean.

                                                                  I was beginning to understand, but barely. To ask a pertinent question now and then, like where the hell was Langston Hughes in Modern Poetry? Dickinson, in Nineteenth Century    American Lit?

The landscape of Modern Poetry , rife with dogs, raccoons, goats, skulls, and unpaid water bills, poses an alternative history to Romanticism. “May I take the murdered world in? / Sing of it again?” Seuss asks, and simultaneously answers, in riotous, colloquial, first-person poems that deploy the song tradition (“Ballad,” “Pop Song,” “Folk Song,” “An Aria,” “Rhapsody,” and “Ballad That Ends with Bitch”) to upend a history of female subjectivity used as symbol or projection. With deadpan hilarity and perfect pitch, Seuss focuses her lens on the working-class: “There was only foraging for supplies, / many of which were full of worms or covered / in dust, like apples on the orchard floor, / and furniture junked on the side of the road.” These excavations of the unconscious consider the harsh realities of poverty, theft, addiction, and death, forming a “cobbled landscape” born of “unscholarliness […] rawness” that resounds with ragged lyricism and emotional truth:

Let me resurrect beyond the bracken fronds and the three-legged stool and catgut guitar and this two-ton song from the mouth of a wax museum troubadour.

The apotheosis of this epic duende is a return to the reader, to whom this book is dedicated—“my true ally,” the apostrophic “you”:

                                                          I have an affinity for my parents. An affinity for you. I will make sure you are fed and clothed. I will listen to you endlessly. I will protect your privacy even if it means removing myself from the equation. Do those sound like wedding vows? Are they indiscriminate? Well, then, I am indiscriminate. I am married to the world.

Seuss, in turning outsider consciousness into high art, posits poetry as a living thing, inextricable from the roots of existence and an authentic life: “I’m talking about a time and a place. / All I can say of it is that it was real.”

• Audio Poems
• Audio Poem of the Day
• Twitter Find us on Twitter
• Facebook Find us on Facebook
• Instagram Find us on Instagram
• Facebook Find us on Facebook Poetry Foundation Children
• Twitter Find us on Twitter Poetry Magazine
• Privacy Policy
• Terms of Use
• Poetry Mobile App
• 61 West Superior Street, Chicago, IL 60654
• © 2024 Poetry Foundation

A Short Analysis of T. E. Hulme’s ‘A Lecture on Modern Poetry’

A summary of a key modernist essay

There are numerous documents which might be described as ‘manifestos’ for modernist poetry in English – Ezra Pound’s ‘A Few Don’ts by an Imagiste’ springs to mind – but T. E. Hulme’s ‘A Lecture on Modern Poetry’ was almost certainly the earliest. It’s an important announcement of a new poetic style and, in a small way, a revolutionary document in modern poetry. You can read ‘A Lecture on Modern Poetry’ in full here , but in this post we’re going to try to analyse Hulme’s essay and pinpoint why it was so important.

In 1908, there was a widespread feeling – well, it was widespread among a small but significant group of new poets, anyway – that a new way forward needed to be found for English verse. Algernon Charles Swinburne, who would die the year later but who had been a powerful force in English poetry since the 1860s, proved a particular sticking-point. T. S. Eliot , looking back on the year 1908 (when he was still an undergraduate at Harvard), said the key question was: ‘Where do we go from Swinburne?’ The answer was, apparently, nowhere: he couldn’t find a way out from under the long shadow cast by Swinburne’s poetic virtuosity.

Across the Atlantic, at the meetings of the Poets’ Club in London, another young poet, T. E. Hulme , was offering an answer to the question Eliot had posed, in his ‘Lecture on Modern Poetry’ which he delivered to his fellow members of the Poets’ Club some time in 1908. In ‘A Lecture on Modern Poetry’, Hulme states a number of important and, as it would turn out, influential points about a new direction for modern poetry in English. These can be summarised as follows:

Free verse frees English poetry from the ‘hypnotic’ effects of rhyme and regular metre. T. E. Hulme namechecks Gustave Kahn, a French poet, as the person who first outlined the virtues of vers libre or free verse. As Hulme himself puts it:

The length of the line is long and short, oscillating with the images used by the poet; it follows the contours of his thoughts and is free rather than regular; to use a rough analogy, it is clothes made to order, rather than ready-made clothes.

By using free verse in modern poetry, the poet can free himself from the regularity of conventional poetic metre (what Ezra Pound would later liken dismissively to the metronome). As Hulme argues, regular rhythms in poetry stem from the days when poetry was ‘a religious incantation’, and ‘rhyme and metre were used as aids to the memory’. But the modern poet has no need for such out-of-date techniques, which are more likely to ‘produce a kind of hypnotic state’ in the reader or listener. Free verse will keep the reader on their toes, since the rhythm will continually vary and the reader will never know whether to expect a long or a short line next, a rhymed or an unrhymed one.

Poetic language needs to be direct and use fresh metaphors. This is the last and perhaps the most important tenet, in view of Hulme’s wider philosophy of poetry, in all of ‘A Lecture on Modern Poetry’. For Hulme, poetry is the place where new metaphors are created; once they become familiar phrases they are used in prose as readily understandable terms, and then they ‘die a long lingering death in journalists’ English’ (nothing much changes). Hulme uses the example of describing the hill being ‘clad with trees’: when this was first used it was probably uttered by a poet, who was using a metaphor (suggesting that the hill is clothed with the trees), but now when we hear it we pass over it as a familiar and even clichéd expression. (You can probably think of your own examples here: think of Shakespeare’s phrases, such as ‘heart of gold’ or to vanish ‘into thin air’, which when first heard would have sounded fresh and inspired a vivid image in the listener’s mind; now, though, we merely pass over them as conventions, comprehending their meaning without really stopping to visualise them as images.) Modern poetry, as Hulme writes towards the end of ‘A Lecture on Modern Poetry’, should endeavour to forge fresh metaphors and vivid images.

Those are the main points of T. E. Hulme’s argument in ‘A Lecture on Modern Poetry’, which can be read as a blueprint for the modernist poetic revolution that followed, including the work of T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound. This short summary and analysis of Hulme’s position has sought to summarise some of the key aspects of his essay, but there are numerous questions to ask of this position. How does one go about creating new images which aren’t too outré, too absurd? Even the description of hills being ‘clad’ with trees may once have sounded silly and far-fetched. And how should free verse be used responsibly by the poet, so that a poem doesn’t essentially become a piece of prose chopped up? (For more about this, see T. S. Eliot’s essay ‘ Reflections on Vers Libre ’, which addresses this point.)

Discover more about Hulme’s poetry with this poem he wrote in the WWI trenches and  this selection of some of his finest poems . For a more detailed discussion of Hulme, we recommend this book by the founder-editor of Interesting Literature , Dr Oliver Tearle,  T.E. Hulme and Modernism .

Discover more from Interesting Literature

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Type your email…

1 thought on “A Short Analysis of T. E. Hulme’s ‘A Lecture on Modern Poetry’”

• Pingback: A Summary and Analysis of George Orwell’s ‘Politics and the English Language’ – Interesting Literature

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading

Modern American Poetry Site

A comprehensive resource for the study of modern and contemporary American poetry.

Discover Poets

Discover Schools of Poetry

Pieces of criticism.

The Modern American Poetry Site

is devoted to the teaching and study of modern and contemporary American poetry with particular emphasis on original and excerpted scholarship about key poems, poets, and contexts. This criticism is accompanied by images, media, and the poems themselves.

Introduction to Modern Poetry

Modern poetry spans from 1900 to the end of World War I. Around 1918 some changes occurred thanks to:

- the first generation Modernists, especially Ezra Pound and TS Eliot

- the influence of War Poetry.

Ezra Pound, an American poet and critic, contributed to modernist poetry through to literary and artistic movements that were greatly influential:

- Vorticism

To keep it simple, we can define Imagism as an artistic movement which aimed at writing poetry in a new way by fixing clear thoughts in simple and clear images. Pound tended to replace abstractions with concrete details.

L' Art   (1910)

Green arsenic smeared on an egg-white cloth, Crushed strawberries! Come, let us feast our eyes.

published in the collection Canzoni (1911)

Ezra Pound founded Vorticism in 1914, influenced by Cubism. Poems written following this artistic trend had to avoid the use of traditional language, they had to celebrate energy, speed and dynamism. According to Pound poetry should show the movement and the stillness inside the image.

The vortex is the point of maximum energy. It represents, in mechanics, the greatest efficiency. We use the words 'greatest efficiency' in the precise sense-as they would be used in a text book of MECHANICS.

 (from  "Vortex", an essay by Pound which appeared in BLAST , published by Lewis, in 1914.)

Beside Pound, TS Eliot has an essential role in developing Modern poetry. His poem The Waste Land is considered the central Modernist poem.

In The Waste Land Eliot introduces the use of myth and anthropology in poetry. Moreover his poem is built around the idea of the failure of the Western civilization, being imbued as it is by images of sterility and chaos.

 What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man, You cannot say, or guess, for you know only A heap of broken images, where the sun beats, And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief, And the dry stone no sound of water.

Furthermore the poem corresponds to the characteristics of Modernism. For example Eliot uses time shifts to reveal the use of the stream of consciousness technique. The extensive use of time shits together with the use of the stream of consciousness technique generate a complete absence of narrative order. Many quotations from various authors are also inserted inside the text, in many different languages. Eliot hints at different philosophies and episodes from diverse religious traditions as well.

The second generation Modernist poets is mainly represented by the Oxford Poets, so-called because they all were students from Oxford. They appeared around the 1930s. Unlike the first generation modernist poets, the Oxford poets did not have a nihilistic vision and they did not use experimental techniques. They preferred writing in traditional forms and a less obscure language instead. Their poems were mainly concerned with social problems both in the UK and abroad. Their leader was Wystan Hugh Auden. His social and political commitment is expressed in the poem Refugee Blues . In   Le Musée des Beaux Arts  he deals with the men's solitude in an indifferent world.

Refugee Blues (1939)

Say this city has ten million souls, Some are living in mansions, some are living in holes: Yet there's no place for us, my dear, yet there's no place for us.

Once we had a country and we thought it fair, Look in the atlas and you'll find it there: We cannot go there now, my dear, we cannot go there now.

In the village churchyard there grows an old yew, Every spring it blossoms anew: Old passports can't do that, my dear, old passports can't do that.

The consul banged the table and said, "If you've got no passport you're officially dead": But we are still alive, my dear, but we are still alive.

Went to a committee; they offered me a chair; Asked me politely to return next year: But where shall we go to-day, my dear, but where shall we go to-day?

Came to a public meeting; the speaker got up and said; "If we let them in, they will steal our daily bread": He was talking of you and me, my dear, he was talking of you and me.

Thought I heard the thunder rumbling in the sky; It was Hitler over Europe, saying, "They must die": O we were in his mind, my dear, O we were in his mind.

Saw a poodle in a jacket fastened with a pin, Saw a door opened and a cat let in: But they weren't German Jews, my dear, but they weren't German Jews.

Went down the harbour and stood upon the quay, Saw the fish swimming as if they were free: Only ten feet away, my dear, only ten feet away.

Walked through a wood, saw the birds in the trees; They had no politicians and sang at their ease: They weren't the human race, my dear, they weren't the human race.

Dreamed I saw a building with a thousand floors, A thousand windows and a thousand doors: Not one of them was ours, my dear, not one of them was ours.

Stood on a great plain in the falling snow; Ten thousand soldiers marched to and fro: Looking for you and me, my dear, looking for you and me.

From Ten Songs 

The New Romanticism started thanks to the New Apocalypse Poets. They were a group of British poets, mostly born after the World War, who eventually elected DH Lawrence as their poetic forefather. They considered him the singer of the great elemental forces of nature as opposed to mechanical things. For them Lawrence was also the writer who chose to regard emotion as superior to rationality.

Dylan Thomas, a Welsh poet, followed this literary trend. He is best known for his sensual love for words and his fascination with nature and the world of childhood, like the Metaphysical poets and the Romantics.

LnT suggests

LnT visiting the pages dedicated to TS Eliot  and The Waste Land

Impostazioni avanzate

Qui puoi personalizzare le preferenze sui cookie. Abilita o disabilita le seguenti categorie e salva la tua selezione.

In order to continue enjoying our site, we ask that you confirm your identity as a human. Thank you very much for your cooperation.

Poetry Explained

How to Write a Poetry Essay (Complete Guide)

Unlock success in poetry essays with our comprehensive guide. Uncover the process to help aid understanding of how best to create a poetry essay.

While many of us read poetry for pleasure, it is undeniable that many poetry readers do so in the knowledge that they will be assessed on the text they are reading, either in an exam, for homework, or for a piece of coursework. This is clearly a daunting task for many, and lots of students don’t even know where to begin. We’re here to help! This guide will take you through all the necessary steps so that you can plan and write great poetry essays every time. If you’re still getting to grips with the different techniques, terms, or some other aspect of poetry, then check out our other available resources at the bottom of this page.

This Guide was Created by Joe Samantaria

Degree in English and Related Literature, and a Masters in Irish Literature

Upon completion of his degrees, Joe is an English tutor and counts W.B. Yeats , Emily Brontë , and Federico Garcia Lorca among his favorite poets. He has helped tutor hundreds of students with poetry and aims to do the same for readers and Poetry + users on Poem Analysis.

How to Write a Poetry Essay

• 1 Before You Start…
• 2 Introductions
• 3 Main Paragraphs
• 4 Conclusions
• 6 Other Resources

Before You Start…

Before we begin, we must address the fact that all poetry essays are different from one another on account of different academic levels, whether or not the essay pertains to one poem or multiple, and the intended length of the essay. That is before we even contend with the countless variations and distinctions between individual poems. Thus, it is impossible to produce a single, one-size-fits-all template for writing great essays on poetry because the criteria for such an essay are not universal. This guide is, therefore, designed to help you go about writing a simple essay on a single poem, which comes to roughly 1000-1200 words in length. We have designed it this way to mirror the requirements of as many students around the world as possible. It is our intention to write another guide on how to write a comparative poetry essay at a later date. Finally, we would like to stress the fact that this guide is exactly that: a guide. It is not a set of restrictive rules but rather a means of helping you get to grips with writing poetry essays. Think of it more like a recipe that, once practiced a few times, can be modified and adapted as you see fit.

The first and most obvious starting point is the poem itself and there are some important things to do at this stage before you even begin contemplating writing your essay. Naturally, these things will depend on the nature of the essay you are required to write.

• Is the poem one you are familiar with?
• Do you know anything about the context of the poem or the poet?
• How much time do you have to complete the essay?
• Do you have access to books or the internet?

These questions matter because they will determine the type, length, and scope of the essay you write. Naturally, an essay written under timed conditions about an unfamiliar poem will look very different from one written about a poem known to you. Likewise, teachers and examiners will expect different things from these essays and will mark them accordingly.

As this article pertains to writing a poverty essay, we’re going to assume you have a grasp of the basics of understanding the poems themselves. There is a plethora of materials available that can help you analyze poetry if you need to, and thousands of analyzed poems are available right here. For the sake of clarity, we advise you to use these tools to help you get to grips with the poem you intend to write about before you ever sit down to actually produce an essay. As we have said, the amount of time spent pondering the poem will depend on the context of the essay. If you are writing a coursework-style question over many weeks, then you should spend hours analyzing the poem and reading extensively about its context. If, however, you are writing an essay in an exam on a poem you have never seen before, you should perhaps take 10-15% of the allotted time analyzing the poem before you start writing.

The Question

Once you have spent enough time analyzing the poem and identifying its key features and themes, you can turn your attention to the question. It is highly unlikely that you will simply be asked to “analyze this poem.” That would be too simple on the one hand and far too broad on the other.

More likely, you will be asked to analyze a particular aspect of the poem, usually pertaining to its message, themes, or meaning. There are numerous ways examiners can express these questions, so we have outlined some common types of questions below.

• Explore the poet’s presentation of…
• How does the poet present…
• Explore the ways the writer portrays their thoughts about…

These are all similar ways of achieving the same result. In each case, the examiner requires that you analyze the devices used by the poet and attempt to tie the effect those devices have to the poet’s broader intentions or meaning.

Some students prefer reading the question before they read the poem, so they can better focus their analytical eye on devices and features that directly relate to the question they are being asked. This approach has its merits, especially for poems that you have not previously seen. However, be wary of focusing too much on a single element of a poem, particularly if it is one you may be asked to write about again in a later exam. It is no good knowing only how a poem links to the theme of revenge if you will later be asked to explore its presentation of time.

Essay plans can help focus students’ attention when they’re under pressure and give them a degree of confidence while they’re writing. In basic terms, a plan needs the following elements:

• An overarching answer to the question (this will form the basis of your introduction)
• A series of specific, identifiable poetic devices ( metaphors , caesura , juxtaposition , etc) you have found in the poem
• Ideas about how these devices link to the poem’s messages or themes.
• Some pieces of relevant context (depending on whether you need it for your type of question)

In terms of layout, we do not want to be too prescriptive. Some students prefer to bullet-point their ideas, and others like to separate them by paragraph. If you use the latter approach, you should aim for:

• 1 Introduction
• 4-5 Main paragraphs
• 1 Conclusion

Finally, the length and detail of your plan should be dictated by the nature of the essay you are doing. If you are under exam conditions, you should not spend too much time writing a plan, as you will need that time for the essay itself. Conversely, if you are not under time pressure, you should take your time to really build out your plan and fill in the details.

Introductions

If you have followed all the steps to this point, you should be ready to start writing your essay. All good essays begin with an introduction, so that is where we shall start.

When it comes to introductions, the clue is in the name: this is the place for you to introduce your ideas and answer the question in broad terms. This means that you don’t need to go into too much detail, as you’ll be doing that in the main body of the essay. That means you don’t need quotes, and you’re unlikely to need to quote anything from the poem yet. One thing to remember is that you should mention both the poet’s name and the poem’s title in your introduction. This might seem unnecessary, but it is a good habit to get into, especially if you are writing an essay in which other questions/poems are available to choose from.

As we mentioned earlier, you are unlikely to get a question that simply asks you to analyze a poem in its entirety, with no specific angle. More likely, you’ll be asked to write an essay about a particular thematic element of the poem. Your introduction should reflect this. However, many students fall into the trap of simply regurgitating the question without offering anything more. For example, a question might ask you to explore a poet’s presentation of love, memory, loss, or conflict . You should avoid the temptation to simply hand these terms back in your introduction without expanding upon them. You will get a chance to see this in action below.

Let’s say we were given the following question:

Explore Patrick Kavanagh’s presentation of loss and memory in Memory of My Father

Taking on board the earlier advice, you should hopefully produce an introduction similar to the one written below.

Patrick Kavanagh presents loss as an inescapable fact of existence and subverts the readers’ expectations of memory by implying that memories can cause immense pain, even if they feature loved ones. This essay will argue that Memory of My Father depicts loss to be cyclical and thus emphasizes the difficulties that inevitably occur in the early stages of grief.

As you can see, the introduction is fairly condensed and does not attempt to analyze any specific poetic elements. There will be plenty of time for that as the essay progresses. Similarly, the introduction does not simply repeat the words ‘loss’ and ‘memory’ from the question but expands upon them and offers a glimpse of the kind of interpretation that will follow without providing too much unnecessary detail at this early stage.

Main Paragraphs

Now, we come to the main body of the essay, the quality of which will ultimately determine the strength of our essay. This section should comprise of 4-5 paragraphs, and each of these should analyze an aspect of the poem and then link the effect that aspect creates to the poem’s themes or message. They can also draw upon context when relevant if that is a required component of your particular essay.

There are a few things to consider when writing analytical paragraphs and many different templates for doing so, some of which are listed below.

• PEE (Point-Evidence-Explain)
• PEA (Point-Evidence-Analysis)
• PETAL (Point-Evidence-Technique-Analysis-Link)
• IQA (Identify-Quote-Analyze)
• PEEL (Point-Evidence-Explain-Link)

Some of these may be familiar to you, and they all have their merits. As you can see, there are all effective variations of the same thing. Some might use different terms or change the order, but it is possible to write great paragraphs using all of them.

One of the most important aspects of writing these kind of paragraphs is selecting the features you will be identifying and analyzing. A full list of poetic features with explanations can be found here. If you have done your plan correctly, you should have already identified a series of poetic devices and begun to think about how they link to the poem’s themes.

It is important to remember that, when analyzing poetry, everything is fair game! You can analyze the language, structure, shape, and punctuation of the poem. Try not to rely too heavily on any single type of paragraph. For instance, if you have written three paragraphs about linguistic features ( similes , hyperbole , alliteration , etc), then try to write your next one about a structural device ( rhyme scheme , enjambment , meter , etc).

Regardless of what structure you are using, you should remember that multiple interpretations are not only acceptable but actively encouraged. Techniques can create effects that link to the poem’s message or themes in both complementary and entirely contrasting ways. All these possibilities should find their way into your essay. You are not writing a legal argument that must be utterly watertight – you are interpreting a subjective piece of art.

It is important to provide evidence for your points in the form of either a direct quotation or, when appropriate, a reference to specific lines or stanzas . For instance, if you are analyzing a strict rhyme scheme, you do not need to quote every rhyming word. Instead, you can simply name the rhyme scheme as, for example, AABB , and then specify whether or not this rhyme scheme is applied consistently throughout the poem or not. When you are quoting a section from the poem, you should endeavor to embed your quotation within your line so that your paragraph flows and can be read without cause for confusion.

When it comes to context, remember to check whether or not your essay question requires it before you begin writing. If you do need to use it, you must remember that it is used to elevate your analysis of the poem, not replace it. Think of context like condiments or spices. When used appropriately, they can enhance the experience of eating a meal, but you would have every right to complain if a restaurant served you a bowl of ketchup in lieu of an actual meal. Moreover, you should remember to only use the contextual information that helps your interpretation rather than simply writing down facts to prove you have memorized them. Examiners will not be impressed that you know the date a particular poet was born or died unless that information relates to the poem itself.

For the sake of ease, let’s return to our earlier question:

Have a look at the example paragraph below, taking note of the ways in which it interprets the linguistic technique in several different ways.

Kavanagh uses a metaphor when describing how the narrator ’s father had “fallen in love with death” in order to capture the narrator’s conflicted attitudes towards his loss. By conflating the ordinarily juxtaposed states of love and death, Kavanagh implies the narrator’s loss has shattered his previously held understanding of the world and left him confused. Similarly, the metaphor could suggest the narrator feels a degree of jealousy, possibly even self-loathing, because their father embraced death willingly rather than remaining with the living. Ultimately, the metaphor’s innate impossibility speaks to the narrator’s desire to rationalize their loss because the reality, that his father simply died, is too painful for him to bear.

As you can see, the paragraph clearly engages with a poetic device and uses an appropriately embedded quotation. The subsequent interpretations are then varied enough to avoid repeating each other, but all clearly link to the theme of loss that was mentioned in the question. Obviously, this is only one analytical paragraph, but a completed essay should contain 4-5. This would allow the writer to analyze enough different devices and link them to both themes mentioned in the question.

Conclusions

By this stage, you should have written the bulk of your essay in the form of your introduction and 4-5 main analytical paragraphs. If you have done those things properly, then the conclusion should largely take care of itself.

The world’s simplest essay plan sounds something like this:

• Tell them what you’re going to tell them
• Tell them what you’ve told them

This is, naturally, an oversimplification, but it is worth bearing in mind. The conclusion to an essay is not the place to introduce your final, groundbreaking interpretation. Nor is it the place to reveal a hitherto unknown piece of contextual information that shatters any prior critical consensus with regard to the poem you are writing about. If you do either of these things, the examiner will be asking themselves one simple question: why didn’t they write this earlier?

In its most simple form, a conclusion is there, to sum up the points you have made and nothing more.

As with the previous sections, there is a little more to a great conclusion than merely stating the things you have already made. The trick to a great conclusion is to bind those points together to emphasize the essay’s overarching thread or central argument. This is a subtle skill, but mastering it will really help you to finish your essays with a flourish by making your points feel like they are more than the sum of their parts.

Finally, let’s remind ourselves of the hypothetical essay question we’ve been using:

Remember that, just like your introduction, your conclusion should be brief and direct and must not attempt to do more than it needs to.

In conclusion, Kavanagh’s poem utilizes numerous techniques to capture the ways in which loss is both inescapable and a source of enormous pain. Moreover, the poet subverts positive memories by showcasing how they can cause loved ones more pain than comfort in the early stages of grief. Ultimately, the poem demonstrates how malleable memory can be in the face of immense loss due to the way the latter shapes and informs the former.

As you can see, this conclusion is confident and authoritative but does not need to provide evidence to justify this tone because that evidence has already been provided earlier in the essay. You should pay close attention to the manner in which the conclusion links different points together under one banner in order to provide a sense of assuredness.

You should refer to the poet by either using their full name or, more commonly, their surname. After your first usage, you may refer to them as ‘the poet.’ Never refer to the poet using just their first name.

This is a good question, and the answer entirely depends on the level of study as well as the nature of the examination. If you are writing a timed essay for a school exam, you are unlikely to need any form of referencing. If, however, you are writing an essay as part of coursework or at a higher education institution, you may need to refer to the specific guidelines of that institution.

Again, this will depend on the type of essay you are being asked to write. If you are writing a longer essay or writing at a higher educational level, it can be useful to refer to other poems in the writer’s repertoire to help make comments on an aspect of the poem you are primarily writing about. However, for the kind of essay outlined in this article, you should focus solely on the poem you have been asked to write about.

This is one of the most common concerns students have about writing essays . Ultimately, the quality of an essay is more likely to be determined by the quality of paragraphs than the quantity anyway, so you should focus on making your paragraphs as good as they can be. Beyond this, it is important to remember that the time required to write a paragraph is not fixed. The more you write, the faster they will become. You should trust the process, focus on making each paragraph as good as it can be, and you’ll be amazed at how the timing issue takes care of itself.

Other Resources

We hope you have found this article useful and would love for you to comment or reach out to us if you have any queries about what we’ve written. We’d love to hear your feedback!

In the meantime, we’ve collated a list of resources you might find helpful when setting out to tackle a poetry essay, which you can find below.

• Do poems have to rhyme?
• 10 important elements of poetry
• How to analyze a poem with SMILE
• How to approach unseen poetry
• 18 Different Types of Themes in Poetry

Home » Poetry Explained » How to Write a Poetry Essay (Complete Guide)

About Joe Santamaria

Experts in poetry.

Our work is created by a team of talented poetry experts, to provide an in-depth look into poetry, like no other.

Cite This Page

Santamaria, Joe. "How to Write a Poetry Essay (Complete Guide)". Poem Analysis , https://poemanalysis.com/how-to-write-a-poetry-essay/ . Accessed 11 July 2024.

Help Center

Request an Analysis

(not a member? Join now)

Poem PDF Guides

PDF Learning Library

Beyond the Verse Podcast

Poetry Archives

Poet Biographies

Useful Links

Poem Explorer

Poem Generator

[email protected]

Poem Solutions Limited, International House, 36-38 Cornhill, London, EC3V 3NG, United Kingdom

Discover and learn about the greatest poetry, straight to your inbox

Unlock the Secrets to Poetry

• Privacy Policy
• DMCA Policy

What are the Characteristics of Modern Poetry | Essay on Modern Poetry | Modern Poets of Modern Age

A lot of students have asked me to discuss about what are the characteristics of modern poetry , Essay on modern poetry , Poets of modern age and what is modern poetry . So, I am going to discus about essay on modern poetry .

Table Of Contents

• 1 What is Modern Poetry?
• 2 Trends or Characteristics of Modern Poetry
• 3.1 W.B Yeats as a modern poet
• 3.2.1 Robert Frost as a Modern Poet
• 3.2.2 W.H. Auden as a Modern Poet

What is Modern Poetry?

If we want to discuss about what is modern poetry then we will have to tell about the magic of modern poetry which is resource center for the theory and craft of writing poetry. Modern poetry which is a curious mixture of the traditional and the experimental of the old and the new , it is of cosmopolitan nature with English, Irish and American poets. It is also a poetry of revolt resulting largely from the impact of science. This revolt is to be seen in the form and this revolt is to be seen in the form content. We can see this revolt in the poetries of T.S. Eliot. The poet sees life in its naked naturalism.

Trends or Characteristics of Modern Poetry

The trends or characteristic of Modern Poetry or modern poetry characteristics is shown below:

1. The main theme of the modern poetry is realistic. The realism of life are shown in the modern poetry. The tragedy of human life are found in the mind of human poets. Eliot’s “The Waste Land” reflects the traffic flaw and despair of human life.

2. Modern poetry is full of diversity. Eliot has been greatly influenced by the famous poetry of symbolist poets W.B Yeats who was an Irish whose poetry reflects his love for Ireland. Robert Frost wrote poetry from the viewpoint of a New England dweller and we all know that New England dweller is a part of the U.S.A. Thus we find the regional poetry of Frost, Patriotic poetry of Yeats and poetry of social criticism of T.S Eliot.

3. Passion for humanity is a salient feature of modern poetry. The common theme of a large number of modern poems are the tendency to slow sympathy to the down-trodder.

Read More: Use of Myth In Auden’s Poetry | Mythology in Modern British Poetry by Auden

Use of Myth In Auden’s Poetry | Mythology in Modern British Poetry by Auden

4. Modern poetry reflects the disorder and decay of modern civilization. “The Waste Land” by T.S Eliot is an example of vivid picture of decay and isolation.

5. The treatment of myth and history are the also main important aspects of modern poetry. W.B Yeat’s famous poem “A prayer for my daughter”, Eliot’s “ The love song of Alfred Prufrock ” have many mythological references.

6. Modern poetry reflects turbulent politics of the period. Auden in his poem “In the Memory of W.B Yeats”, he describes about the terrible outbreak of World War II in 1939. He tells in the following ways:

“In the nightmare of the dark All the dogs of Europe bark And the living nations wait Each sequestered in its hate”

7. Impressionism, Imagination and Surrealism are the innovation or main characteristic in Modern Poetry .  

Major Modern poets of Modern Age

Modern poetry in English Literature begins after the Victorian Age. Modern poets try to focus the barrenness sterility, fragmentation, alienation, boredom and indecisive of modern man. The major modern poets who has contributed precisely to modern English literature are W.B Yeats , John Minsfield , Walter Delamare , Wilfred Owen , Gerland Manley Hopkince , T.S Eliot , W.H Auden , Robert Frost , Dylan Thomas etc.

W.B Yeats as a modern poet

William Butler Yeats was a romantic and patriotic poet who was an Irish. There are some reason for which we know W.B Yeats as a modern poet. He was the last romantic and one of the first great modern poets. “The Celtic Revival” in late ninetieth century was under the leadership of him. There was a movement to stimulate interest in the ancient literature of Ireland and to create a new native literature.

His first volume “ The Wandering of Oisin ” published in 1889 was a collection of romantic poem based on Irish Mythology. Other volumes followed, all of them characterized by mysticism and symbolism. He received the Nobel Prize in 1923 and by the time of his death in 1939 his poetry had established him as the greatest Irish poet of modern times.

It is no exaggeration to describe Yeats as one of the most difficult of modern poets. He formulated a philosophical and mystic idea to replace the scientific materialism of his age. His great poems are “ Leda and the Swan ”, “ A prayer for my daughter ”, “ Second Coming ”, “ Easter 1916 ” for which we know W.B Yeats as a modern poet .

T.S Eliot as a modern poet

We all know T.S. Eliot as a modern poet. He left United states in 1914 and became a British citizen in 1927, has exerted a major influence on modern poetry. In addition his critical essays and verse dramas have own him a reputation as an outstanding critic and play wright. Most of his poetry considered difficult to read because it is filled with obscure reference and allusion. His stimulating ideas, colorful imagery and lyrical power have won for him recognition as a major writer of Modern Age. For his outstanding works in poetry, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1948 for literature.

In addition to several books of poetry, Eliot’s published works include the well-known poetic dramas “ Murder in the Cathedral ”, “ The Cocktail Party ”, and “ The Confidential Clerk ”. “ Macavity: the Mystery Cat ” is his another great poem. His critical writings include “On poetry and Poets” and “ Selected Essays ” in which he evaluates such literature figures as Shakespeare and Kipling. 

Robert Frost as a Modern Poet

Robert Frost is an American poet but we all know that Robert Frost as a modern poet and he is known as the “ Poet of New England ”. His contribution in English literature are really good. He is famous for his poetry which give him the Pulitzer Prize in poetry four times. His language is the simple, natural speech of New England farm people. Robert Frost writing style is easy direct and pithy.

Usually he pictures the New England scene with harsh realism. Although born in San Francisco of New England family, he left America to England after his father death. He published his first book of poetry “ A boy’s will ” in 1913, which is written for the people of the farm country. “ North of Boston ”, “ Meaning Wall ”, “ The Death of the Hired Man ”, and “ The Wood-Pile ” are appeared in this volume. Most of the Frost poetries are remarkable for the realism view point of human life. “ Stooping by Woods in a Snowy Evening ” is a famous poem in which he says the responsibilities of human world. He says in the following ways in this poem:

The woods are lovely dark and deep; But I have promises to keep; And miles to go before I sleep And miles to go before I sleep”

“ Gathering Leaves ” is his another famous poems. In this poems he says about the realism in the following ways:

“But the mountain I move Elude my embrace Flowing over my arms And into my face”.

W.H. Auden as a Modern Poet

W.H. as a Modern Poet is brilliant and versatile and his poetry interprets contemporary life by intensifying the reader awareness of the common perplexities of a rapidly changing world. Auden is the younger poet who in his personal life reversed. Eliot’s pattern and left his native England to become a citizen f the United States. Auden characterized a viewpoint typical of much current English Poetry with a long, bitter poem which he titled “ The Age of Anxiety ” which help him to won the 1948 Pulitzer Prize for poetry .

“ The sea and the Mirror ”, a series of monologues assigned to various character in Shakespeare play the Tempest. In the satirical poetry of his youth, Auden parodied the styles of Various earlier English poets and his chief effort with the outbreak of World War II   he became more serious and much of his later poetry is concerned with problems of religion and philosophy. “Who’s Who” and “The Unknown Citizen” are the poems which are clear and vigorous to the point of leaving the reader mentally out of breath.

In The poem “ The Unknown Citizen ”, Auden tells in the following ways:

“Was he free? Was he happy? The question is obscured”

The most young poet of the age are Dylan Tomas , Cristopher Fry , John Masefield whose contribution in Modern Age are as like as T.S. Eliot or W.B. Yeats .

For your better understanding about the modern poetry characteristics or characteristics of modern poetry , you may watch the following YouTube Video.

Read More Valuable Literary Writings:

Treatment of history and myth in Yeats’ poetry.

Dover Beach Poem Analysis | Critical appreciation or theme on the poem “Dover Beach”

To His Coy Mistress Analysis And Summary By Andrew Marvell

Theme of melancholy in Emily Dickenson poems analysis

Critical Discussion On the poem Ode To A Nightingale – John Keats Ode To A Nightingale Analyses or Summary

Ode to a skylark critical appreciation or analysis theme summary

Robert Frost writing style or poetic style and themes – The Dramatic technique of Frost’s Poetry

John Donne poems reflects love – John Donne as a metaphysical poet research paper

Use of Myth In Auden’s Poetry | Mythology in Modern British Poetry by Auden

Song of Myself by Walt Whitman , Main Theme, Summary, Analysis

RELATED ARTICLES MORE FROM AUTHOR

Thinks to know more about Jack The Giant Slayer

Heartbroken senior dog surrendered after 10 years thinks cars passing by are his family — looking for a new home

Senior dog waited 700 days in the shelter — finally gets adopted by senior woman

Essay on Modern Poetry

Students are often asked to write an essay on Modern Poetry in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Modern Poetry

What is modern poetry.

Modern poetry is a type of writing that began in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It breaks from older styles, using everyday language and new forms. Poets write about personal feelings, social issues, and nature in fresh ways.

Characteristics of Modern Poetry

This poetry often avoids traditional rhyme and rhythm. Instead, it uses free verse, which doesn’t have a set pattern. Poets like to play with words and images to express thoughts in a powerful way.

Themes in Modern Poetry

Modern poets talk about current events, inner emotions, and human experiences. They write in a way that makes readers think and feel deeply about life.

Why It Matters

Modern poetry helps us understand our world. It shows us different perspectives and connects us with the thoughts and feelings of others. It is a mirror to our times.

250 Words Essay on Modern Poetry

Changes in form.

In the past, poems often followed strict rules about rhythm and rhyme. Modern poetry sometimes does not rhyme and does not have a regular beat. Poets choose to write in free verse, which means the poem flows more like a conversation than a song.

New Subjects

Modern poets write about all kinds of things, from cities and machines to personal feelings. They like to explore topics that are important to everyday life and sometimes even difficult or uncomfortable subjects. This makes modern poetry feel more real and close to our experiences.

Language and Imagery

The words used in modern poetry are simpler and more direct. Instead of fancy or old-fashioned language, modern poets use words that are easy to understand. They also create strong images with these words, painting pictures in our minds that help us see what they are talking about.

Modern poetry is important because it reflects the world we live in. It helps us think about our lives and the world around us in new ways. By using simple language and talking about everyday things, modern poetry connects with a lot of people, including students like you.

500 Words Essay on Modern Poetry

Modern poetry is a type of writing that began in the early 20th century. It is different from older poetry because it does not follow strict rules about rhythm or rhyme and often talks about everyday life in new and interesting ways. Modern poets try to express their feelings and ideas in a style that sounds more like regular speech than traditional poetry.

Imagery is another important part of modern poetry. This means that poets use words to create pictures in the reader’s mind. These images can be about anything from a city street to a quiet garden. The idea is to make the reader see, feel, or experience something in a new way.

Modern poetry often talks about real-life issues. Poets write about war, love, loneliness, and many other topics. They share their personal feelings and experiences, and sometimes they write about social or political issues that they care about. The goal is to connect with the reader on a deep level and to make them think about the world in a different way.

Famous Modern Poets

Why modern poetry matters.

Modern poetry is important because it helps us understand our world and ourselves. It can make us feel less alone by showing us that others have felt the same way we do. It also encourages us to look at things in new ways and to appreciate the beauty in the world around us.

Modern poetry is also a way for people to share their cultures and experiences. Poets from different backgrounds can teach us about their lives and help us see the world from their point of view. This helps us learn about and understand people who are different from us.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

Apart from these, you can look at all the essays by clicking here .

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Of Modern Poetry

By wallace stevens, of modern poetry essay questions.

"Of Modern Poetry" is full of instructions on what modern poetry must be and do. What can we infer from these instructions about what the life of a modern poet should be like, in order to produce such poetry?

Stevens emphasizes poetry's need to be grounded in the real world and current time: "learn the speech of the place...face the men of the time and to meet / The women of the time. It has to think about war..." We can infer that a poet able to write about the people and events around himself must be socially engaged, aware of his society, or at least not a recluse. The poet also needs to be aware of poetry's history to understand the need for modern poetry as a new form, the need to "construct a new stage." In the image of the actor, Stevens also implies that poets must be careful and deliberate so that the poetry can speak "slowly and / With meditation."

Over the course of this poem, how does Stevens vary sentence length and complexity, and how does he use form? What purpose do these devices serve?

Stevens wrote "Of Modern Poetry" in free verse, with no fixed meter or rhyme, in order to demonstrate that a simple form can still convey a powerful meaning, as was one of the projects of Modernism—like the metaphysician "twanging a wiry string." He begins and ends with simple, straightforward sentences in order to lay out clear rules for poetry and to create the tone of an artistic manual or manifesto. In the two long and complex sentences in the middle of the poem, Stevens ventures into metaphorical descriptions of the interactions between a poem and its audiences, which serve as a possible example for the rules that make up the rest of the poem.

Why does Stevens talk about poetry by using the language and terms of theater?

Compared to poetry, theater is more of a public, verbal and physical art form. It would be easier for readers to imagine the physical space of a stage as a symbol for the world of poetry, and to imagine a poem as a living performer speaking words into its listeners' ears. In other words, theater acts as a convenient metaphor for poetry because it helps show poetry's ability to speak out to society and real people in the audience.

What kind of meaning and satisfaction should audiences get from the ideal modern poem described here?

The middle of the poem claims that poetry should tell an audience "exactly, that which it wants to hear"—which would seem to indicate that poetry should find a way to please everyone. Stevens goes on to explain that the goal is for audiences to express emotion together, for poetry to give "sudden rightnesses" to things around it, and for people to find "satisfaction." So, we can infer that poetry must have something in it for everyone—something to move them and help them make sense of the world. This type of meaning can vary from person to person: the satisfaction "may / Be" one of many forms, exemplified by the three people and actions Stevens mentions in the last two lines.

How does Stevens use word and phrase repetition in this poem?

There are many pieces in this poem that repeat or cycle through several times: most notable is the sentence-opener phrase "It has to," offering the many commands for modern poetry. The effect of this anaphora is to firmly establish a pedantic tone, and not lose the poem's focus, which is on setting rules for poetry. There are many more points of repetition, however—"of the time" in lines 7-8, "new stage" and "that stage," "the ear" and "the delicatest ear," among many others—such that the poem often feels slow and methodical, as it makes a point and then pauses to slightly rephrase that same point. This technique mimics that of a lesson, and also makes evident the careful craft that poets must take in writing meaningful work.

Of Modern Poetry Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Of Modern Poetry is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Study Guide for Of Modern Poetry

On Modern Poetry study guide contains a biography of Wallace Stevens, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About Of Modern Poetry
• Of Modern Poetry Summary
• Character List

Essays for Of Modern Poetry

On Modern Poetry essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of On Modern Poetry by Wallace Stevens.

• The Australian Dream: Coastal Living in 'Breath' and 'Blue Hills 11'

More From Forbes

25 famous poems that everyone should read.

• Share to Facebook
• Share to Twitter
• Share to Linkedin

A framed poster of a stamp depicting Langston Hughes, who wrote some of the best poems in American ... [+] history.

Poetry provides the perfect way to indulge in the escapism of reading without the commitment required to finish a novel. You can read most famous poems in a single sitting, some taking just a minute or two, and they give you a window into a new way to think. The best poems and poetry employ imagery as well as gorgeous, creative language designed to make you think and help draw conclusions about greater themes. In most poems, a bird is never just a bird, and you can learn a lot about life by thinking about the symbolic meaning of the themes explored, from romance to politics. This list includes poems from the best poetry books of all time and other more recent poems that examine contemporary events.

Some of the most popular, well-known poets include modern geniuses such as Maya Angelou, Langston Hughes, Allen Ginsberg and Sylvia Plath. Other famed poets date back centuries, including Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. And yet others still write today, like Amanda Gorman.

The poems on this list are ranked based on popularity, how the themes hold up over time, use of language and imagery, reputation of the poet and critical reaction to the poem. It includes poems from as recent as 2021 and ones as old as 1798. You will find a lot to enjoy on this list.

25. "Flowers from the Volcano" by Claribel Alegría (2013)

Claribel Alegría (1924-2018), a Latin American poet who moved to the U.S. during World War II, was a committed pacifist who returned to Nicaragua to help the country rebuild in 1985. In this poem, she recounts memories of Central America and uses incredible imagery to link it to the rest of the world.

This poem is best for people who have some understanding of metaphor in poetry. You can read "Flowers from the Volcano" by Claribel Alegría in Halting Steps: Collected and New Poems from publisher Northwestern University Press .

Best High-Yield Savings Accounts Of 2024

Best 5% interest savings accounts of 2024, 24. "paul revere's ride" by henry wadsworth longfellow (1860).

This famed poem begins with the lines, “Listen, my children, and you shall hear/Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere.” It goes on to narrate Revere’s ride to warn Massachusetts residents of the approach of British soldiers—though, as scholars have pointed out, it’s not historically accurate. Still, it’s an exciting story.

This poem is best for novice poetry readers. You can read "Paul Revere's Ride" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, which is old enough to have shifted into the public domain, on the Academy of American Poets website.

Artist Robert Guillemin known popularly as "Sidewalk Sam" puts the finishing touches on a portrait ... [+] of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow at the foot of the Longfellow Bridge spanning the Charles River, which completes his project painting the poem "Paul Revere's Ride."

23. "A Dog Has Died" by Pablo Neruda (1974)

Published after Chilean poet Pablo Neruda’s death, “A Dog Has Died” pays tribute to a loyal pet in plain, unsentimental language. He describes the dog’s personality and their bond, though it’s clear the narrator has a reserved personality and never fully felt the joy his pet chased in life.

This poem is best for anyone who has experienced the grief of losing a pet. You can read "A Dog Has Died" by Pablo Neruda in Winter Garden from publisher Copper Canyon Press .

22. "Heartbeats" by Melvin Dixon (1995)

The staccato rhythm of this poem feels like a heartrate monitor—appropriate, since the narrator is struggling with an illness. The person wonders how long they have to live while also detailing their care and treatment. Of note, the poet was HIV positive and often wrote about black gay men like himself.

This poem is best for anyone new to poetry looking for an accessible place to start. You can read "Heartbeats" by Melvin Dixon in Love’s Instruments from publisher Northwestern University Press .

21. "A Carafe, that is a Blind Glass" by Gertrude Stein (1914)

Gertrude Stein is better known for her prose, but her sparse poetry is also worth reading. This is the shortest poem on the list, just three lines and written as sentences. Yet the poem is open to interpretation, and the meaning of the “blind glass” often reflects the reader’s own experience.

This poem is best for those who are short on time yet still want an impactful read. You can read "A Carafe, that is a Blind Glass" by Gertrude Stein, which is old enough to have shifted into the public domain, on the Poetry Foundation website.

20. "Jabberwocky" by Lewis Carroll (1871)

Lewis Carroll loved his creatures, and this poem warns readers, “Beware the Jabberwock, my son!/The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!” It creates a classic good vs. evil scenario, in which the hero sets out to slay the Jabberwocky. It’s certainly no coincidence Carroll named his creature a word that now means “meaningless.”

This poem is best for those who enjoyed Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and similarly wild adventures. You can read "Jabberwocky" by Lewis Carroll, which is old enough to have shifted into the public domain, on the Poetry Foundation website.

The grave of Lewis Carroll, who wrote "Jabberwocky," at Mount Cemetery.

19. "She Was Fed Turtle Soup" by Lois Red Elk (2015)

An enrolled member of the Fort Peck Sioux, Lois Red Elk uses her experience as a teacher, actor and technical advisor on Hollywood films to create vivid poetry. This one follows a girl's journey to mature and partake in the ritual of eating turtle soup.

This poem is best for more experienced poetry readers searching for denser poems. You can read "She Was Fed Turtle Soup" by Lois Red Elk, which is no longer available in a print edition, on the Academy of American Poets website.

18. "what if" by Claudia Rankine (2020)

Claudia Rankine’s poem opens with an insightful question: "What does it mean to want an age-old call/for change/not to change/and yet, also,/to feel bullied/by the call to change?" Her awesome command of language (see, among other wordplay, the phrase “historied out”) makes this poem about modern living a must-read.

This poem is best for anyone ready for more complex, challenging and gorgeously written poetry. You can read "what if" by Claudia Rankine in Just Us from publisher Graywolf Press .

17. "A Memory" by Saeed Jones (2018)

If you don’t follow Saeed Jones on social media or listen to his podcast, you’re missing out. He has a unique ability to synthesize pop culture with humor and truth. “A Memory” is the poet at his best, including the line, “When I’m back, I want a body like a slash of lightning.”

This poem is best for anyone who wants to read contemporary poetry. You can read "A Memory" by Saeed Jones, which was published as part of the Poem-A-Day project, on the Academy of American Poets website.

16. "Sick" by Shel Silverstein (1970)

Shel Silverstein’s playful children’s poems get to the heart of what it is to be a kid. In “Sick,” a little girl insists she has all manner of illnesses before realizing she’s pulling her fake on a weekend—not a school day. Miraculously, she’s feeling much better! It’s a well-imagined, well-executed story.

This poem is best for adults who want to read poetry with their kids. You can read "Sick" by Shel Silverstein in Where the Sidewalk Ends from publisher Harpercollins .

Shel Silverstein, left, appearing on "The Johnny Cash Show" with Johnny Cash. Silverstein wrote some ... [+] of the best children's poems.

15. "Phenomenal Woman" by Maya Angelou (1995)

One of Maya Angelou’s best-known poems, “Phenomenal Woman” pays tribute to the power of self-love, especially for Black women who have long been othered and intentionally excluded from societal beauty standards. The poem pushes back against what society sees as a remarkable woman and creates a new standard.

This poem is best for anyone who has ever felt less-than or isn’t finding the right answers in a self-help book . You can read "Phenomenal Woman" by Maya Angelou in And I Still Rise from publisher Penguin Random House .

14. "'Hope' is the thing with feathers" by Emily Dickinson (1891)

One of famed poet Emily Dickinson’s best-known poems, “‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers” follows the narrator’s encounter with a bird. However, like most poems, this one is about so much more. It also explores our capacity for hope, when it is misguided and when it is not.

This poem is best for anyone looking for a Dickinson poem to begin with. You can read "‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers" by Emily Dickinson, which is old enough to have shifted into the public domain, on the Poetry Foundation website.

13. "Casey at the Bat" by Ernest Thayer (1888)

Ernest Thayer’s 19th-century classic takes readers through the suspenseful final inning of a baseball game with the Mudville nine hoping their star player, Casey, would get to the plate. Of course, as nearly everyone knows (spoiler alert!) from the famous last line, “there is no joy in Mudville—mighty Casey has struck out.”

This poem is best for sports fans and novice poetry readers. You can read "Casey at the Bat" by Ernest Thayer, which is old enough to have shifted into the public domain, on the Academy of American Poets website.

12. "Song of Myself" by Walt Whitman (1855)

Another poem that celebrates the value of individualism and releasing yourself from societal standards is Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself.” He uses grass to symbolize rebirth—as the famous line goes, “I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love,/If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles.”

This poem is best for readers with a firm grasp of symbolism and imagery. You can read "Song of Myself" by Walt Whitman, which is old enough to have shifted into the public domain, on the Poetry Foundation website.

11. "American History" by Michael S. Harper (2000)

In just nine lines, Michael S. Harper calls out the violence perpetrated against Black people from the founding of the United States, juxtaposing a horrific past historical event with a horrific more recent one. His poem is frequently cited in conversations about social justice and racial inequities.

This poem is best for anyone and should be required reading for Americans. You can read "American History" by Michael S. Harper in Songlines in Michaeltree from publisher University of Illinois Press .

10. "Daddy" by Sylvia Plath (1962)

Sylvia Plath explored her issues with her father and her estranged abusive husband in the poem “Daddy,” which questions why women must deal with violence from men. Due to her own father’s early death, she argues she never developed tools to tell the good men from the bad men. This was published after Plath died.

This poem is best for anyone looking to begin reading Plath’s poetry. You can read "Daddy" by Sylvia Plath in The Collected Poems from publisher HarperCollins .

Stencil graffiti street art featuring a Sylvia Plath in a dress with her bicycle and panniers on in ... [+] Hebden Bridge, United Kingdom.

9. "In Flanders Field" by John McCrae (1915)

There’s no way to repay or adequately honor soldiers who give their lives for their country. This poem published during the then-unprecedented bloodshed of World War I is set in a graveyard in Belgium, where fallen soldiers implore those reading to ensure their sacrifice is not in vain.

This poem is best for anyone interested in military history who wants to see another aspect of war’s impact. You can read "In Flanders Field" by John McCrae, which is old enough to have shifted into the public domain, on the Poetry Foundation website.

8. "The Hill We Climb" by Amanda Gorman (2021)

It was one of the most memorable inauguration moments in recent memory: 22-year-old poet Amanda Gorman becoming the youngest-ever inaugural poet while reading her work about racial justice and the challenges to uniting America. It soon became a bestselling book, and Gorman has skyrocketed to fame for her wise words.

This poem is best for anyone interested in contemporary poetry or politics. You can read "The Hill We Climb" by Amanda Gorman in The Hill We Climb from publisher Penguin Random House .

7. "We Real Cool," by Gwendolyn Brooks (1963)

Gwendolyn Brooks, the first Black winner of the Pulitzer Prize, often used poetry to convey the Black experience in America. In “We Real Cool,” she describes a group of teens like most others in the prime of life—buoyant, slightly rebellious, feeling invincible. That’s sadly proven wrong due to their skin color, the poem foreshadows.

This book is best for people looking for short poems that deliver a punch to the gut. You can read "We Real Cool" by Gwendolyn Brooks in Selected Poems from publisher HarperCollins .

6. "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1798)

We have all committed thoughtless acts that come back to haunt us. Thus, it feels relatable when the Ancient Mariner, the protagonist of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s enduring poem, kills an albatross and later must pay for it. The poem also reminds readers not to take the carefree times in life for granted.

This poem is best for anyone who’s ever wondered about the origin of albatrosses as symbols of regret and woe. You can read "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, which is old enough to have shifted into the public domain, on the Poetry Foundation website.

5. "Diving into the Wreck" by Adrienne Rich (1973)

Adrienne Rich uses a well-constructed, in-depth metaphor to explore women’s place in society in “Diving into the Wreck.” Even the word “wreck” can be taken two ways—the ruined ship a diver explores or the muddle women’s everyday lives become amid the patriarchy. Rich uses the diver’s journey to parallel women’s self-discovery.

This poem is best for fans of extended allegories. You can read "Diving into the Wreck" by Adrienne Rich in Diving into the Wreck from publisher W.W. Norton .

Adrienne Rich, author of "Diving into the Wreck," one of the greatest poems ever written.

4. "Howl" by Allen Ginsberg (1956)

Beat poet Allen Ginsberg and his contemporaries wanted to blow things up—from societal norms to traditional writing practices. Ginsberg touched on both in his controversial poem “Howl,” which authorities in the UK called obscene due to references to sex and drugs. The poet also calls out capitalism and war for destroying culture.

This poem is best for anyone curious about counterculture or beat poetry. You can read "Howl" by Allen Ginsberg in Selected Poems 1947-1995 from publisher HarperCollins .

3. "A Thousand Mornings" by Mary Oliver (2012)

Mary Oliver may be the most widely read poet due to her popularity among non-poetry readers. Her simple vocabulary and straightforward questions make her accessible, such as in “A Thousand Mornings.” She urges readers to lose themselves in the presence of nature and appreciate the moment—simple as that.

This poem is best for anyone looking to begin their poetry journey. You can read "A Thousand Mornings" by Mary Oliver in A Thousand Mornings from publisher Penguin Random House .

2. "Fire and Ice" by Robert Frost (1920)

Robert Frost wrote many exceptional poems. Though this was composed more than a century ago, that dichotomy between hot and cold, symbolizing desire and hatred, remains relevant today. The poem doesn’t argue for or against either, which makes it more interesting. It uses natural symbolism to illustrate the dangers of each.

This poem is best for anyone searching for a good first Robert Frost poem. You can read "Fire and Ice" by Robert Frost in New Hampshire from publisher Penguin Random House .

Robert Frost, poet of Amherst, New Hampshire, and author of one of the best poems, "Fire and Ice."

1. "I, Too" by Langston Hughes (1926)

Langston Hughes used his poetry to illustrate the struggles Black people faced in America during the Harlem Renaissance (and well beyond, as many of the same issues persist today). “I, Too” explores Hughes’s dream of ending segregation and uniting people of all colors. It argues for equality and against ignorance.

This poem is best for everyone as it can spark critical conversations and reflections on racism. You can read "I, Too" by Langston Hughes in The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes from publisher Penguin Random House .

Bottom Line

Poetry offers an escape, an opportunity to, however briefly, imagine yourself as part of another world. So much of poetry is subjective, and no two people interpret it exactly the same, which is part of the fun. Dive into a new poem on this list today!

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What are great poems for friends.

Great poems for friends illustrate what it means to be devoted to one another and share a special bond. Some poems use the absence of fellowship to underscore why friends are important. Two great poems for friends are: 

Maya Angelou’s “ Alone ” (1975), which explores why we all need friends, no matter how much money or privilege we have. 

May Yang’s " To All My Friends " (2017), which pays tribute to the people who have supported the Hmong American poet (who writes under the pseudonym Hauntie) throughout her times of anguish, rage and weakness.  

What Are The Best Poems About Nature?

The best poems about nature make you want to go outside and see something living or green. They use imagery, metaphor and description to set the scene. Two of the best poems about nature are: 

Robert Frost’s " Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening " (1923), which paints a parallel between the dark woods and death. 

Emily Dickinson’s " A Bird, came down the Walk " (1891), about a chance encounter with a bird in which the narrator ponders the wonder, and almost terrifying scope, of nature. 

What Are The Best Love Poems?

The best love poems capture the excitement, lust, desire and often heartbreak of being in love. Whether chronicling an unrequited flame or depicting a perfect relationship, love poems cover a gauntlet of emotions. Two of the best love poems are: 

Elizabeth Barrett Browning's " Sonnets from the Portuguese 43 " (1850), which paints a picture of all-consuming, hot-burning love and opens with one of the most famous lines in history (“How do I love thee? Let me count the ways”).

William Shakespeare's " Sonnet 18 ” (1609), which perfectly captures the optimism of early love and also has a famous opening line (“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?").

• Editorial Standards
• Reprints & Permissions

Join The Conversation

One Community. Many Voices. Create a free account to share your thoughts. 

Forbes Community Guidelines

Our community is about connecting people through open and thoughtful conversations. We want our readers to share their views and exchange ideas and facts in a safe space.

In order to do so, please follow the posting rules in our site's  Terms of Service.   We've summarized some of those key rules below. Simply put, keep it civil.

Your post will be rejected if we notice that it seems to contain:

• False or intentionally out-of-context or misleading information
• Insults, profanity, incoherent, obscene or inflammatory language or threats of any kind
• Attacks on the identity of other commenters or the article's author
• Content that otherwise violates our site's  terms.

User accounts will be blocked if we notice or believe that users are engaged in:

• Continuous attempts to re-post comments that have been previously moderated/rejected
• Racist, sexist, homophobic or other discriminatory comments
• Attempts or tactics that put the site security at risk
• Actions that otherwise violate our site's  terms.

So, how can you be a power user?

• Stay on topic and share your insights
• Feel free to be clear and thoughtful to get your point across
• ‘Like’ or ‘Dislike’ to show your point of view.
• Protect your community.
• Use the report tool to alert us when someone breaks the rules.

Thanks for reading our community guidelines. Please read the full list of posting rules found in our site's  Terms of Service.